Hey guys. I'm pretty new to overclocking to be honest, but I've read quite a bit about it so far, and have checked out a few threads with overclocking results and such.

I have slowly started to overclock my Q8200, and made a pretty small adjustment to the buss speed and changed the multiplier from 6 to 7 (my only options in the bios).

So I've basically went from 2.3 GHz to 2.6 GHz on air. (Yes I know thats nothing )

Anyways, my temps are what you see below at idle. Under prime95's stress test @100% LOAD they are around Core 1: 56-58 C2: 55 C3:58 C4: 52

I left the voltage at AUTO. (not wanting to screw it up)

Can anyone provide me with any tips or adjustments I should make at this current state, and also let me know how much more I can get out of it on air before my temps are too high. My rig is in the Sig.

1. Any overclock is something.
2. Quads over 400 FSB are asking for some Vcore, but mostly NB volts.
3. Quads over 450 FSB are very rare.
4. Keep a close eye on those temps - already running high 40s at idle is not a good sign. Do you have proper ventilation in that 1200? Don't exceed 65C under load.

I think I have proper ventilation... hehe I have all the stock fans on the Mid setting, and the front ones all like 3/4 of the way cranked. I also installed a fan on the side that runs at mid speeds as another exhaust.

Temps look fine to me. As you already guessed, you are not gonna go all that far with a Q8200. 3.2Ghz is almost guaranteed the max if you want it perfectly stable. I noticed the biggest boost going to 3.0Ghz and little more at 3.2Ghz (which I could not really get stable). Even with decent water cooling, I am not much lower than many people's air results. I get to about 62C using IntelBurnTest (which is going to get you about 10C+ over what you currently get). I really had to bump up the NB voltage to somewhat uncomfortable levels, but that was much more important than Vcore. Also loosen up that ram since it is going to be the limiting factor when you get over 400MHz FSB.

Don't worry about your temps, anything under 70C is fine. That board should run 450Mhz FSB with that CPU, it is just gonna take some major tweaking. I had a P5Q PRO (May he rest in pieces) that ran 450FSB with my Q8200 stable. Unfortunately for me I goofed when installing a better NB cooler and borked the board. My current setup also can run a touch higher, but I am quite happy with 3Ghz since it gave me the boost I was looking for. I am running 429Mhz FSB right now in case you are wondering.

Temps look fine to me. As you already guessed, you are not gonna go all that far with a Q8200. 3.2Ghz is almost guaranteed the max if you want it perfectly stable. I noticed the biggest boost going to 3.0Ghz and little more at 3.2Ghz (which I could not really get stable). Even with decent water cooling, I am not much lower than many people's air results. I get to about 62C using IntelBurnTest (which is going to get you about 10C+ over what you currently get). I really had to bump up the NB voltage to somewhat uncomfortable levels, but that was much more important than Vcore. Also loosen up that ram since it is going to be the limiting factor when you get over 400MHz FSB.

Don't worry about your temps, anything under 70C is fine. That board should run 450Mhz FSB with that CPU, it is just gonna take some major tweaking. I had a P5Q PRO (May he rest in pieces) that ran 450FSB with my Q8200 stable. Unfortunately for me I goofed when installing a better NB cooler and borked the board. My current setup also can run a touch higher, but I am quite happy with 3Ghz since it gave me the boost I was looking for. I am running 429Mhz FSB right now in case you are wondering.

Cool, thanks for that info. Very informative. I have no idea what settings to change when it comes to my RAM though...

I should also add that there is no reason you couldn't load it up to 80C with any stress testing program since these CPU's don't start to throttle before 95C. I tormented a QX6850 with 100C+ temps on a regular basis when I was testing heatsinks for Techgage.com and it still works perfectly. I wouldn'y want to run over 80C 24/7, but as long as it idles under 50C and loads under 75C then you will hardly shave any life off it if any at all. Don't forget to go into BIOS and make sure the CPU fan is running 100%. You can tell because the Vendetta 2's fan is quite loud at full speed.